Kabuto's Thoughts

The next morning, while Hui was still fast asleep, Naruto's shrill yells woke her up. They made the perfect alarm clock.

Hui was so startled that she rolled right out of bed. Then came the sound of hurried footsteps outside, followed by doors opening and closing all over the place. Who knew what the guy was looking for?

Hui sighed helplessly. Before long, her bedroom door opened, and Naruto stared at Hui Youling, who was lying on the floor wrapped in her blanket. "Y-you're back? Why are you on the floor?"

Hui rolled her eyes, speechless. "Go outside first. We'll talk in a bit."

"O-okay..." Naruto obediently backed out and even closed the door for her. Seeing him like that, Hui helplessly got up and changed out of her pajamas.

When she went out, Naruto was still sitting obediently in the living room. The moment he saw her, he rushed over anxiously. "When did you get back? I was waiting for you by the bridge yesterday." He paused, looking puzzled. "Huh? How did I get home?"

Hui couldn't be bothered to answer. She turned and walked into the bathroom, saying calmly, "You flew."

Naruto stared blankly, unable to understand what she meant. His vacant expression returned, and it took him a while to come around. Looking at Hui washing up in the bathroom, he scratched his head and chuckled. It really felt like home.

After breakfast, the two went out to train again. Hui ran a few laps alongside Naruto, then sat to one side and watched him. Every time Naruto passed her, he looked utterly exasperated. The problem was, he couldn't take a break—if he did, she'd give him a hard time.

"Keep it up! You can do it!" Hui cheered him on from the sidelines with no sincerity whatsoever, the small stones in her hand serving as an unmistakable threat.

"Why do you get to sit there and rest?!" Naruto yelled at Hui in frustration.

"Keep it up!" Hui said again, not adding a word, a fake smile on her face.

Naruto nearly blew a fuse. He screamed and sprinted toward the top of the hill. "Aaaah!"

Hui chuckled, but still shouted after him, "If you don't finish your laps today, you're not getting any ramen!"

The promise of delicious food couldn't have made Naruto happier. What could she do? He was a little glutton, and she held the purse strings. Thinking of that, Hui grinned with delight.

"How could you do this to me?!" Naruto's complaint came from far away, echoing as it startled a flock of birds into flight. It seemed the sky itself rang with crows calling, "Idiot... idiot..."

Naruto finally finished his laps for the day and came over, panting. He was about to collapse on the ground, so Hui had to catch him. She teased, "You've been training for so long. How are you still this tired?"

Naruto gave her a helpless look. He was terribly upset, but didn't have the strength to argue back. He could only say in gasps, "When... I see you... not running... I get tired."

"Hahaha!" Hui burst out laughing. Seeing how awful he looked, she quickly reassured him, "I'm not very fit. You have to understand."

Naruto truly didn't have the energy to argue with Hui anymore. His mind was fixed on ramen. "Ramen... ramen... I want ramen... my ramen!"

Listening to Naruto's wailing, Hui glanced at him speechlessly. "I know, I know! Honestly!"

Naruto came back to life in an instant and pointed at Hui. "You said it! No taking it back!"

"When have I ever taken it back? Honestly!"

Though Naruto was as exhausted as a dead fish, the moment he saw Ichiraku Ramen, he came fully back to life. Hui really felt as if she were training a pet.

After they ate, the two went their separate ways to train. As Hui passed a fish stall, the owner cheerfully asked if she wanted to buy some fish. After thinking it over, Hui paid for the half-dead fish and carried them off to find Kabuto.

When she finally found him, she immediately noticed the dark circles under his eyes. What had he been doing?

Seeing Hui Youling carrying fish, Kabuto continued in a gloomy tone, "Why did you buy these lousy fish again?"

Hui no longer wanted to argue with him. She got straight to the point. "Want to try?"

Kabuto paused, then snorted and took the fish. Hui followed him inside and stood behind him, watching as he treated them. Before long, the fish were actually swimming around energetically.

Hui looked at Kabuto in astonishment. Even Sakura had needed three months to master this training. He'd only had two days. Still, Kabuto was a genius, and he already had a lot of experience to build on, so perhaps it wasn't surprising that he'd done so well.

Hui couldn't help asking, "How did you learn it so quickly?"

Kabuto remained indifferent and said calmly, "I'd already experimented on people. What's so strange about that? You can't do it because you're too stupid."

Hui was momentarily stunned. He'd skipped animal testing and gone straight to clinical trials?

The fish were alive, but in the end, they became everyone's dinner. The children all pitched in to prepare them, chatting noisily, while Kabuto quietly watched from the sidelines. Hui saw him staring for a long time and went over, curious. "What are you thinking about?"

Kabuto glanced at her. After a while, he said calmly, "Is there any point in saving something that's destined to die? They're going to die anyway, so why waste your effort in the first place?"

Kabuto paused, then continued, "Maybe if they died, they wouldn't have to experience the feeling of dying again."

Hearing this, Hui's eyes widened slightly, and she looked at Kabuto in surprise. She didn't quite understand what he meant, but she felt he wasn't talking only about the fish, or merely about whether they were worth saving.

She wanted to offer some grand words of wisdom, but to Kabuto, they would all be empty platitudes. The circumstances he lived in didn't allow for any assumption of peace.

Hui turned to look at the orphans preparing dinner. They were happy to have fish to eat, and didn't think about philosophical questions the way Kabuto did. But perhaps it was because Kabuto was always thinking that he was different from the other orphans.

"I can't answer that either. But since you've chosen to study Medical Ninjutsu under your teacher, you should do your best to carry on her legacy. It's not bad to help someone and ease their pain."

"Besides, everyone needs to have some value of their own in this world, doesn't she? Even if it's small, or only lasts a short time."

Kabuto turned to Hui, brows knitted together. "Then how are you going to find your own value?"

"What if no one recognizes your value? Or what if it's so small that it has no meaning at all? Could you still think that way?"

Kabuto fired off question after question. Hui's expression grew more and more serious. How could she dare to give her own answers to questions like these? Before she found a way to realize her value, she had been desperately searching for strength.

She had plenty of arguments and empty encouragement, but Kabuto wanted her honest answer. "I..."

Kabuto seemed a little disappointed. He gave Hui a faint look, sighed softly without a word, then turned back to the children.

Hui pressed her lips together, her mind in turmoil. After a moment of silence, she finally spoke. "Kabuto, before you can realize the value you envision for yourself, you have to put in the effort. If you want to achieve more than others, you have to put in more time than they do."

"I believe that if someone with no talent at all keeps doing something ten thousand times, it will definitely bring about a qualitative change."

Kabuto turned to look at Hui in confusion. He understood what she meant; he just thought the words were meaningless. In this world, the advantages that came with bloodlines couldn't be made up for through effort so easily.

Hui smiled faintly and lifted her gaze to the sky. "If you can't realize the value you want, you can only learn to be more open-minded. Dwelling on it all the time is just making trouble for yourself, isn't it?"

"But everyone has something they're good at. If you play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses, you can slowly figure out your own value."

Kabuto's tightly furrowed brow relaxed. He glanced at Hui and said calmly, "That kind of talk sounds pretty worthless."